A multitude of industries, worldwide, produce and transport goods that are heat and/or cold sensitive. Such industries include the fine food industry, confectioneries, meat and seafood, medical diagnostics, and industrial goods. Such goods are generally packaged at the plant where they are produced and prepared for shipping to customers or forwarded into a distribution channel.
Containers such as six-sided corrugated boxes are widely utilized for the packaging and transport of temperature sensitive goods. Corrugated containers offer excellent bulk storage characteristics as well as space-efficient collapsibility. Unfortunately, corrugated boxes do not exhibit significant insulation properties. In addition, corrugated board, although rigid and generally sturdy, does not greatly inhibit temperature transfer from the outside in or the reverse. Insulation materials are required for such a task.
Most insulation materials inhibit the transfer of heat by virtue of very common physical characteristics. Materials that are good insulators are generally high volume and low density materials. Unfortunately, high volume/low density materials such as fiberglass and Styrofoam obviously present storage inefficiencies.
A very effective and common product utilized to transfer temperature sensitive goods is a Styrofoam cooler. The rigid low density walls of such a product exhibit excellent insulation characteristics by slowing conductive heat transfer and providing adequate containment. Styrofoam containers are also quite rigid and are often utilized alone without a corrugated outside container. Unfortunately, Styrofoam containers typically do not collapse. The sheer bulk of such a product, especially in high quantities, produces significant inefficiencies, namely storage and transport.
Other types of insulation utilized are liners fitting the inside of corrugated containers. Such liners made of Styrofoam, ether/urethane cellular foams, or fibrous panels have proven to be very effective in producing an insulating effect inside corrugated containers. Such liners, however, also exhibit poor storage characteristics and are made of similar low density materials. It is important to note that such materials, generally presented in un-recycled form and first quality, are quite expensive. With ever increasing energy and raw materials prices, packaging options utilizing such materials, have experienced significant cost increases.
It is obvious that companies utilizing insulation materials generally need to assign a large amount of warehouse space for storage of such goods. Transportation (trucking) from the company providing the insulation to the company using it also becomes costly as volume is a strong factor in shipping cost. Consumption of fuel and space makes the transport and storage of bulky items, such as conventional insulation materials, increasingly expensive and prohibitive.
For the foregoing reasons there is a need for a cost-effective insulator and method of storing and efficiently transporting insulation materials utilized to package bulk amounts of temperature sensitive goods.